Indonesia's plan of sending observers to Thai-Cambodia border to face setback: minister

08 Apr, 2011

Indonesia's plan of sending military observers to Thai-Cambodia border might have stalled as it had not got formal approvals from the two countries, the Jakarta Post reported on its website Thursday.

Indonesia's Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said after attending a meeting of the Thailand-Cambodia Joint Border Committee on Thursday in Indonesia's Bogor that Indonesia would not send observers if they were not welcome, but the ASEAN chairman country of this year had either not received any official rejection from Thailand or Cambodia.

At an Indonesia-brokered ASEAN's foreign minister meeting in Jakarta last month, Thailand and Cambodia agreed to accept a dispatch of Indonesian observers to the disputed area adjacent to the ancient Khmer Hindu temple of Preah Vihear, where heavy fighting erupted in February.

After that, meetings of the Thai-Cambodia General Border Committee (GBC) and Thai-Cambodian Joint Boundary Committee (JBC) were decided to take place in Bogor from April 7 and 8, with coordinating efforts conducted by Indonesia.

But Thai army chief Gen. Prayut Chan-O-Cha said Wednesday that the observers were not wanted because it was too dangerous and they would only complicate matters. He also called for a bilateral meeting with Cambodia only before the one in Bogor.

However, according to Indonesia's official Antara News Agency, Minister Marty Natalegawa also said that the meeting on Thursday had a very good start, and hopefully his communication with the Thai colleagues would bring about the desired result.

He added that Indonesia was the facilitator of the peace process and had tried to bridge the differences between Thailand and Cambodia in the joint committee. He called for a further meeting in the near future.

According to the minister, the Bogor meeting on Thursday discussed the importance to stabilize or perpetuate the ceasefire in the disputed border area and had shown that the diplomatic process was being put forward and acts of violence renounced.

Source: Xinhua